Battle of Steenkerke

Battle of Steenkerque
Part of the Nine Years' War
Date 3 August 1692 Location Steenkerque, present-day Belgium Result French victory
Belligerents
France	England  United Provinces  Denmark  Scotland
Commanders and leaders
Duc de Luxembourg	William III of England and II of Scotland
Strength
80,000	80,000
Casualties and losses
8,000 killed and wounded	10,000 killed and wounded

The Battle of Steenkerque (Steenkerque also spelled Steenkerke or Steenkirk) was fought on 3 August 1692, as a part of the Nine Years' War. It resulted in the victory of the French under Marshal François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg against a joint English-Scottish-Dutch-German army under Prince William of Orange. The battle took place near the village of Steenkerque in the Southern Netherlands, 50 kilometres (31 mi) south-west of Brussels. Steenkerque is now part of the Belgian municipality of Braine-le-Comte.

The French had achieved their immediate object by capturing of Namur. The French, not wishing to fight, took up a strong defensive position in accordance with the strategical methods of the time. The French army lay facing north-west with its right on the Zenne at Steenkerque and its left towards Enghien. Their supposition was that the enemy would not dare to attack it.

William III had replaced Waldeck as supreme allied commander. The allied army was encamped about Halle. Of the 20 British regiments in the Allied army, 8 were Scottish, including the famed Mackay Regiment, who had landed with William at Torbay in 1688. The Allies, who would otherwise probably have done as the French marshal desired, were by the fortune of war afforded the opportunity of surprising a part of the enemy's forces. Accordingly, William set his army in motion before dawn on 3 August and surprised the French right about Steenkerque. He completely misled the enemy by forcing a detected spy to give Luxemburg false news. In the 17th century when the objects of a war were, as far as possible, secured without the loss of valuable lives and general decisive battles were in every way considered undesirable, a brilliant victory over a part, not the whole, of the enemy's forces was the tactical idea of the best generals.

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